


Time Again

by Jcapasso916



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 20:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6625873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jcapasso916/pseuds/Jcapasso916
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchesters and Gabriel are on the run from the darkness. When they get caught Gabriel pulls a desperate hail mary, but the burst of power accidentally sends Dean back in time instead of Sam as intended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've done one where Sam went back in time and a couple where Gabriel goes back and realized Dean needs a turn too :)

Sam, Dean, and Gabriel bustled around, getting together everything they would need for their last stand against Amara. It had been a long six years. Six years of hiding out, staying on the run, grasping at any straw they could to find any possible weakness they could exploit in the sister of god. Six years since Cas had died, for good this time, trying to go against Amara housing Lucifer in his vessel. Their only saving grace had been the fact that Gabriel had so many boltholes in the world, and they were all warded to the teeth. They’d pick one and it would take Amara a few months to bust through the wards, but as they fell, they moved on to the next. Thankfully, Gabriel had put his library in a pocket dimension so they could access it from anywhere.

They knew that their current plan wasn’t exactly the best. It was a long shot, but they were finally running out of places to hide, not to mention getting incredibly sick of running and hiding. None of them were sure which one was the most galled by the fact, so they had stopped arguing about that years ago. Gabriel had been with Lucifer/Cas when they went against Amara, managing to put aside their differences for the greater purpose and Gabriel had barely escaped with his life. They were all glad the bunker’s wards held long enough for Gabriel to heal up enough to move them, and they had been on the run ever since. 

Sam and Gabriel had been together since not long after Gabriel escaped from Metatron after the scribe resurrected him. Dean hadn’t been too happy about it at first, but over time he came to remember why he’d liked Gabriel so much during their first meeting and they were as much brothers as Dean and Sam were by now. Sam and Gabriel had bonded not long after they went on the run, deciding that if they were to die, they wanted to be able to share whatever life came next. 

They had about another hour before Amara managed to break through these wards and this time they were going to let her come. Sam and Dean were rushing around painting sigils on the walls and Gabriel was following behind them, infusing the sigils with his grace to give them a bit more punch. They had long since had all the spells they might need memorized and said their goodbyes should the worst happen. 

Amara finally made it through about five minutes after they finished the last of their preparations. Gabriel knew they were in trouble when the sigils didn’t slow her down at all. They had been banking on her being weakened from breaking through the wards, giving the sigils enough purchase to actually work. It seemed that just wasn’t to be though. It was too late to abort now, so they just barreled ahead. 

Dean and Sam started chanting a spell in unison only to find themselves halfway up the wall as their words were choked out of them. Amara was beyond pissed. Gabriel, however, once he saw that their original plan was up in smoke, started readying his backup plan. He bundled up his grace and attempted to throw it at Sam, but just as he started to release it, Amara flung him across the room too. 

Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he watched his misdirected grace fly across the room. He could tell it wasn’t going to get to Sam, but maybe it would get to Dean. It wouldn’t be ideal. He wouldn’t be pulled along with Dean the way his bond with Sam would do, and Dean wasn’t quite as good at the thinking things through part, but it would be better than nothing. Better than them all dying here and Amara being free to take over the universe.   
Amara couldn’t tell what the burst of grace was designed to do, but she wasn’t going to take any chances with the wily archangel and she tried to stop it. She was too late though, as it slammed into Dean and the hunter disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

Dean stumbled a bit as he suddenly found himself standing in a hallway and he took a look around and immediately recognized where he was as he saw Sam standing next to him and Gabriel in front of him. He really wished the archangel would warn him about this crap. “Oh come on, Gabriel. Really?” he said tiredly only to be met with a confused and slightly concerned look from Sam and a quick narrowing of eyebrows from the janitor in front of him, before he apparently decided to laugh it off. 

“Names Lee kid. Don’t know any Gabriel,” he joked. 

“Are you okay Dean?” Sam asked at the same time. 

That was when Dean realized that whatever Gabriel had done, it had only sent him back to the past. The others had no idea. Dean wasn’t really sure how to handle this yet, but he knew he needed a chance to think rather than just blurt everything out. “Yeah. Sorry. Just…um…thought I saw someone I knew…you know…out the window.” 

Sam obviously didn’t buy it for a second, but Dean knew that he couldn’t hide everything from Sam for very long. He would have to at least know some of it. He just needed a chance to figure out what and how to tell him, so he wasn’t too worried about Sam’s suspicions. He could tell that Gabriel was a little suspicious too, but the archangel in hiding just shrugged it off. 

Dean tried to keep his interactions as close as he could remember to the first time around, and if he was in doubt, he just stayed out of it. If he remembered correctly, Sam had done most of the talking here anyway. Dean had a really hard time keeping the smirk off his face as they flirted with each other. He knew from Gabe that this was when he fell in love with Sam, though it had taken seven years and Gabriel’s death and resurrection for Sam to realize that he felt the same way and then they’d only been able to spent eight years together before the end. 

He pulled himself out of his reflections just in time to hear, “got more ass than a toilet seat,” and he laughed. 

They had barely made it back to their motel before Sam was rounding on him. “What the hell was all that Dean?” 

Dean knew that this was going to be a lot for Sam to swallow so wanted to get him thinking. “All what?” 

“The way you were so quiet and distracted in there, and that outburst about someone called Gabriel. I know for a fact that you don’t know anyone named Gabriel.” 

“Ok so you’re gonna find this hard to believe, but I was just sent back in time.”

“Yeah. Right. Sure,” Sam rolled his eyes in disbelief. 

“I’m serious. I don’t know how to prove it, but it happened,” Dean told him, wracking his brain to figure out something that might convince his brother. 

Sam narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the older hunter. Either Dean had completely lost his mind, or he was telling the truth. Dean wasn’t the type to keep up a joke like this. “How? Why?”

“It’s a very long story. Things went to hell and I was thrown back…I guess to fix it, but last I knew you couldn’t change the past, but if anyone could find a way around that rule it would be Gabe,” Dean realized he was rambling a bit so pulled himself back. “Look. Just…gimme a little time to wrap my head around this and figure some things out and then I’ll tell you what I can.”

“So this…um…time travel…” and didn’t Sam feel pretty stupid saying that. “wasn’t planned then?”

“Nope. Not that anyone told me any way. Seemed more like a last ditch hail mary. I don’t know why I’m the only one that made it back here and I don’t think I wanna know.”

“You said you’ll tell me what you can. You’re not gonna tell me everything?” Sam asked, not really sure how he felt about that. 

“I don’t know how much I can say without screwing things up worse and I really really don’t want to do that. I just wish it had been someone else,” Dean said that last part with a sigh. 

Sam realized that the kind of responsibility Dean must be feeling with all this must be overwhelming. Only the fact that he knew his brother so well had him actually believing any of this, and hell…it’s not like it would be the weirdest thing that ever happened to them. “Ok. I get that. So let’s just work this case then.”

Dean smirked. He was going to tell Gabriel something. He had decided that much, and he was so going to relish this opportunity to screw with him. “Just let me handle this one Sammy, and you just follow my lead.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. Of course Dean would already have the case solved. He’d done this before. “Ok. So what is it? A spirit?”

“Nope. Not a spirit.”

“Then what is it and how do we kill it,” Sam said getting a little frustrated. 

“We don’t,” Dean told him. 

“What do you mean we don’t? It’s dropping bodies Dean!” Sam protested. 

“It’s saving people. That professor rapes girls, and not all of them adults, and bullies them into killing themselves.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Sam argued. 

“Maybe not, but it makes it none of our business. If there’s one thing I learned it’s that life isn’t black and white. When killing the monster kills more innocents than it saves, the monster should be left alone. Remember that vamp chick that was all team human?” Dean pointed out. Sam still didn’t look very convinced. Dean sighed. “Look. Sammy. Please just trust me on this one. We don’t want to kill him.”

“So what? We just pack it in and leave town?” Sam asked, giving in. 

Dean broke out in a wide smirk. “Oh no. Just because we don’t wanna kill him doesn’t mean we can’t screw with him.”


	3. Chapter 3

Sam finally stopped asking questions. At least for a little while, and Dean took the opportunity to jump in the shower, before his brother started up again. He had forgotten about the little childish pranks that Gabriel had pulled to turn him and Sam against each other. At least he forgot until he got out of the shower to find a fuming Sam accusing him off messing with his computer. Dean blinked at him for a minute before he started laughing, which of course just turned Sam’s bitchface up another few notches. “This isn’t funny, Dean.”

“Sorry. Sorry. It’s just…it wasn’t me,” Dean told him through his laughter. 

“Who else could it have been?” Sam asked accusingly.

“The trickster. He’s trying to keep us sniping at each other instead of hunting him,” Dean explained. 

“Trickster? That’s what we’re hunting…or well…not hunting?”

“Sort of. It’s an archangel posing as a trickster while hiding out from heaven,” Dean told him and was met with complete silence as Sam just looked at him like he wasn’t sure whether to have him committed or not. 

“An archangel…hiding from heaven…posing as a…are you sure you didn’t hit your head?” 

“It’s a…”

“Long story. So you’ve said,” Sam cut him off. “So let me see if I can piece some of this together. An archangel, Gabriel I presume?” he questioned getting a nod from Dean, “is hiding from heaven posing as a what? Demigod?” 

“God actually. Loki to be specific,” Dean told him.

“Ok god. And is killing people and we apparently become friends with it at some point?”

“Basically, yeah. He only kills bad people though. The ones who are beyond redemption.”

“And you’re qualified to judge that?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“No. But he is,” Dean pointed out and Sam honestly couldn’t argue with that. 

“Ok fine, but now you wanna just stick around and screw with him?” Sam asked amazed that his brother could be so ridiculously childish. 

“Dude, I’ve been trying fifteen years to get one over on him. I’m gonna trick the trickster,” Dean said with a smug grin. 

“But he’s not really a trickster,” Sam pointed out. 

“Yes. He is. He just happens to be an archangel too. And you haven’t had to listen to that smug voice and his ‘you can’t trick the trickster’ comments. This is gonna be so much fun.” Dean was practically bouncing on his feet in his excitement.

Sam rolled his eyes. “You are such a child,” he said tiredly. “So what’s the plan?”

“We do everything the same as we did last time. At least as close as I can remember. Right up until the final face-off. Then I’ll spring my trick,” Dean told him. Well everything other than calling Bobby in. He would have to explain to the old man later. He didn’t want to ruin the surprises to come for Sam so he would fill his brother in as they went. 

He was woken up the next morning with a pillow in his face and when he opened his eyes he saw a very exasperated brother standing over him. “Aliens? Really?” 

Dean couldn’t help the snickers that escaped. “Yep. Gabe’s a character all right. Come on. We gotta go talk to the kid who was ‘abducted’. Just play it like you normally would,” Dean told him as he pulled himself out of bed and started to get ready for the day. 

By the time they were leaving the bar where the kid was already three sheets into the wind, Sam couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Slow dancing aliens?” he said losing his battle not to laugh. “What did the kid do to deserve that?” 

“Something about being a pledgemaster and taking things way too far. I can’t remember the details. Just that it was bad,” Dean told him with his own grin. He was glad that Sam seemed to be getting into the spirit. 

“Well at least he’s still alive,” Sam grumbled half-heartedly. 

“Gabe said he still had a chance to change, so he just taught him a lesson,” Dean said with a shrug. 

That made Sam feel a little better. The fact that this thing recognized the fact that people could change. He wasn’t about to go calling it an archangel until he had a little more proof, though the fact that Dean believed it was pretty good proof. Dean had always been completely against the ideas of angels or god or any of that existing so if it had Dean convinced, then there was a good chance it was true. 

After the alligator in the sewer, Dean had to take a few deep breaths when he saw the tires of the impala. He had forgotten about that. Gabriel had long learned better than to mess with baby before Dean was sent back. Once he got himself together again, he walked around grabbed Sam’s money clip off the ground and headed back to the motel and tossed it to him. Sam looked at him curiously. “Did you…”

“Nah. Trickster planted it to make me think you let the air out of the tires,” Dean said heading nonchalantly towards his own shower. 

“It messed with the car and you’re still not trying to kill it?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“Oh we will have words about it. Believe me,” Dean assured his brother as he closed the bathroom door. He couldn’t blame Sam for not understanding. Gabriel was his brother-in-law. As good as a brother. He was family, even if the archangel didn’t know it yet. Yeah the first time around the first few years they knew him were more than rocky, but he’d redeemed himself in the end. He’d died for them. He’d risked everything for them on numerous occasions. The only person he owed as much was Sam and maybe Cas, though that one was always a little rocky as well between Crowley, the leviathan, breaking Sam’s wall, Metatron, etc. 

Thinking of Cas made Dean realize that unless certain things happened like last time, he would never meet the perpetually confused seraph. It didn’t take him long to decide that he could live with that. To get Cas back would mean to let Sam die. To let hundreds of demons into the world. To spend forty years in hell. To break the first seal. To start the apocalypse. To let thousands of people die. No. It wasn’t worth it. Not even for Cas. Cas would be better off without it too. He wouldn’t have to fall. He wouldn’t have to be put through all the crap he dealt with. He would never have to know sorrow or betrayal or guilt. Dean wasn’t too happy that it would mean that he remained heaven’s loyal soldier, but it was better than the alternative. 

The thoughts of Cas effectively killed his mood though and by the time he got out of his shower, a sadness had settled over him. Worth it or not, he felt like he was mourning his best friend all over again. He would give himself the rest of the day. They weren’t due to hit the school again until tomorrow morning when they were ‘looking for evidence’ against Gabe. Then it would be back to thinking about all the people he could save. All the good he could do. All the mistakes he could fix. Losing Cas just made him all the more determined to succeed in this. Gabriel would never have sent him back if he couldn’t change things. 

Sam seemed to sense Dean’s dark mood as he came out of the shower and gratefully left him alone for the rest of the day. Sam was busy turning things over in his head too. Trying to make what connections he could between everything his brother said and everything he didn’t say. Obviously they were close to Gabriel in the future. Even Sam couldn’t get away with messing with the car so easily. Dean definitely wasn’t the type to let this thing off just because it’s an archangel. If anything that would piss Dean off more, so what was it?


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Dean essentially handed Sam a script. He was to split off and break into Gabriel’s locker to look for evidence. Then he and Dean would argue about the Weekly World News, and Sam would leave. Dean would take everything from there. Dean had made the mistake though of mentioning the auditorium and Sam had every intention of taking whatever options he had to find out as much information as he could. The fact that Dean didn’t want him there just made him more determined to go, which is why when he left as scripted, he snuck around back and dropped a recording device in the auditorium. 

Sam was sitting in the motel room listening to everything that was going on as the crappy porn music played and he heard the door creak open. “We’ve been waiting for you Dean,” a seductive voice said. 

Dean snorted in amusement. “Sorry Toots. I’m waiting for someone,” he replied easily. 

“They’re a peace offering. I know what you and your brother do. I’ve run into your kind before,” Gabriel said smugly, unwrapping his candy bar as he watched the hunter walk towards him with wary eyes. He didn’t see a stake or any weapon at all on the hunter and that was strange. 

Dean plopped in the seat two down from him, put his feet up on the back of the seat in and leaned back lazily. “Meh. Sleeping with manifestations of your grace is a little too much like sleeping with you, ya know,” he said nonchalantly and barely managed to keep a straight face as Gabriel’s candy bar froze halfway to his mouth and the archangel went rigid. “Watching, however. That’s a different story,” Dean said sliding his eyes quickly over to the shocked archangel. God this was priceless. 

“Hey, you wanna snap me up one of those?” Dean asked gesturing to the candy and when Gabriel still didn’t respond, Dean just reached over and plucked it out of his hand and took a bite. “Or snap yourself up another. Whichever.” Dean turned back to the girls just as Gabriel seemed to snap out of his stupor. 

“What the hell do you know and how do you know it?” he hissed. 

At that Dean couldn’t help himself anymore and burst into laughter. He knew he was walking a fine line, but as long as Gabriel wasn’t pretending to be relaxed with that glint in his eye, he knew he wasn’t in any real danger. He knew his brother-in-law well. “God man. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to get one over on you? Your face…priceless.”

“How long?” Gabriel asked suspiciously. 

“Fifteen years, Gabe. Fifteen years,” Dean said still chuckling knowing that Gabriel would put the pieces together. 

“You’re from the future,” Gabriel guessed. 

“Bingo,” Dean said as he took another large bite of the candy bar. 

“And give me back my candy!” Gabriel said indignantly as he snatched it back. “How?”

“You sent me back. I’m guessing you meant to come along. Not sure why I’m the only one that made it, but I guess it’s all on me to fix things,” Dean said with a shrug. 

“So I take it the apocalypse happened?” Gabriel guessed. 

Dean snorted derisively. “Please. The apocalypse was cake compared to what came after. The apocalypse was started sure, but thanks to you we popped the devil back in the box and he even got a bunkmate in big brother Mikey.”

“What came after?” Gabriel asked wondering what could be worse than the near apocalypse and putting aside the rest to worry about later. 

“Purgatory got cracked open. Leviathan on earth. Mother of all creepy shit. Handled. All sealed back up nice and tight. Heaven got shut down. Angels fell. Mostly handled. Heaven was opened back up. Couldn’t get the angel’s wings back, but they went home. Darkness was released. Not so easily handled. She kicked our asses, which is when you sent me back.”

Gabriel was in much the same shape that he had been in when Dean mentioned grace. “So…what? I actually helped you with all that? You’re not gonna convince me that I was a sidekick,” Gabriel managed to find his voice. 

“Nah. You told us how to abort the apocalypse then you disappeared until after the angels fell,” Dean told him. He wasn’t about to tell the tetchy archangel that he had sacrificed his life to his brother to save them and spent four years dead. “You popped back up in time to help them get home and then you helped us stay a step ahead of the darkness for as long as we could. As far as being a sidekick? Please. You know as well as I do you don’t do sidekick and you would have kicked our asses if we tried to make you one.” 

Gabriel continued watching him for a few minutes. “So when we met a few days ago…”

“That’s when I came back. I thought you and Sam were my Gabe and Sam, but when I realized that you weren’t I couldn’t resist the urge to get one over on you.” Dean gave a wide smug grin. “I tricked the trickster.”

“Yeah. Well. I tricked you too,” Gabriel grumbled. 

“Speaking of. I’ll let it slide this time since we haven’t set the ground rules yet, but the car is off limits. Period. Next time you touch her you get a holy fire Molotov,” Dean said firmly before he dropped a bombshell. “Brother in law or not.”

Back in the motel, Sam sucked in a sharp breath. Brother in law. Did that mean…him and an archangel? Him and Gabriel? 

Apparently Gabriel had a similar reaction. “Me and Sam?” he asked hopefully. Dean nodded. “When you say brother in law do you mean legally married or bonded?” he asked curiously. He wanted to know just how serious he and Sam had been. How far their relationship developed. 

“Bonded,” Dean said. “Soul to grace for all eternity or some such rubbish.” 

“But you said I disappeared for…how long?” 

“Four years. That was before you got together though. You never stuck around long enough to give him a chance to fall for you. As soon as you did, you two were sickeningly happy. Drove me nuts.” 

Sam was still trying to wrap his head around what he was hearing. He wanted a normal life. He didn’t want some supernatural creature. Even if it was an angel. He wanted a wife, kids, a job, a dog. He wasn’t even gay! He couldn’t get Dean’s comment about being ‘sickeningly’ happy out of his head though. Wasn’t that the goal of all of it anyway? Was he really that wrong about what would make him happy?

“Is that your way of telling me to stick around?” Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Like I could tell you what to do. I’m just telling you what’ll happen if you do.”

“You really expect me to hang around with the vessels of the apocalypse?” Gabriel asked incredulously. 

“Hey, nobody’s saying you have to get involved. I know how you feel about all that and I know what not to do this time around anyway so there won’t actually be an apocalypse. I wouldn’t say no to a little of that fancy Enochian rib art though. Something tells me no one is exactly going to be happy about us opting out of their little games.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and scrutinized the hunter for a moment. He had to admit that he had definitely taken a liking to Sam, and apparently in the future he had loved him enough to actually bond with him. He couldn’t even imagine feeling so strongly about anyone and he wanted it. Badly. But it was dangerous. He had spent millennia hiding and now he was supposed to put himself smack dab in the center of the coming storm? “I’m not gonna follow you mooks around like a puppy dog,” Gabriel told him. 

“Never thought you would. Just don’t be a stranger?” Dean asked. He kinda missed the dynamic he and Gabriel had in the future. He missed the dynamic he and Sam had as well. This version of Sam was still so young and so naïve. He didn’t have half that crap under his belt that made them who they were. 

“We’ll see,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. “But now I really am gonna skip town. Kinda drawn a little too much attention trying to get yours,” he told the hunter. 

“Right. Later Gabe,” Dean said to the empty air and he headed back to the motel. He made sure to burn Gabriel’s face at the start of that whole thing into his brain and he laughed the whole way back. That really had been priceless.


	5. Chapter 5

Dean got back to the motel to find his brother spacing out with his headphones on staring at his laptop. “Heya Sammy.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Sam asked flatly. 

“Tell you what?” 

“Vessels of the apocalypse? Bonded to an archangel? All the shit that happened? Any of it?” Sam asked. He had no idea what he was feeling right now. Shocked over the amount of information he’d learned. Angry and betrayed that Dean hadn’t told him. Jealous that he had told Gabriel. 

“How did you…” Dean let the sentence hang. 

“Did you really expect me to not do everything I could to get all the information I could?” Sam asked incredulously. When Dean continued looking at him confused Sam sighed. “I bugged the auditorium.”

Dean let out a heavy sigh and swiped his hand over his face. “I would have told you about the whole apocalypse thing soon. We still have to avoid all that garbage after all. The rest kinda came on the back of all that so there would have been no need, but I wouldn’t have hidden it. If it came up I’d have mentioned it. You and Gabe…that was pretty much the one high point of our entire lives. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen you happy. Really happy. I wasn’t going to say a word about that until I was sure that my bringing it up wouldn’t ruin it.”

“I was happy with Jess,” Sam protested. 

“No you weren’t. Not really. You were content. You wanted to be happy. But with Gabriel it was different. You were free. Relaxed.”

“You don’t know what I felt,” Sam said heatedly, angry that his brother would try to cheapen his relationship with Jessica. 

“I know because you told me, Sammy. Even if I couldn’t see it, you told me. Gabriel was the best thing that ever happened to you. Now I’m not telling you to jump into bed with the guy as soon as you meet him, but I’m asking you to please keep an open mind. Don’t shut him out because you think he’s not what you want.”

Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Dean. “What happened to ‘no chick flick moments’?”

Dean made an amused sound. “I grew up. Still not a big fan of them obviously, but sometimes they’re necessary.”

“On one condition,” Sam said getting a questioning look from Dean. “You don’t get to interfere. No matchmaking. No disappearing as soon as he’s around to force us to spent time together. No putting us in awkward positions. No crude jokes. Nothing.”

“Well I can’t promise no jokes ever, but when I do I’ll do my best not to go overboard,” he promised and got a reluctant nod from Sam. “One other exception. If he comes to me for advice he’ll get it, same as anyone else would.”

“But you can’t bring it up,” Sam agreed getting a nod from Dean and that settled it. He wouldn’t push Gabriel away and things could develop as they would. Sam gave a heavy sigh. “I just want a normal life. Is that so much to ask?” he grumbled. 

“Unfortunately it is,” Dean said sympathetically. Sam gave him a pained look and Dean elaborated. “Because of who we are…what we are…they will never stop coming for us. Anyone we associate with is always going to be in danger. Best to keep it to people who can take care of themselves.”

“Or that we can protect,” Sam suggested, not quite willing to give up on his dream so easily. 

“That’s a lot easier said than done. Believe me,” Dean said sadly. 

“You sound like you know from experience,” Sam questioned. 

“I got out once. Found a girl and a kid. Settled down. I was a construction worker believe it or not. Then the demons kidnapped them to get to me. I managed to get them out but…well she almost died. She would have if I hadn’t gotten an angel friend to heal her and the kid…he was so traumatized he didn’t speak at all. In the end I had the angel wipe their memories of me so they couldn’t be used to get to me anymore and hit the road again.”

“That doesn’t mean it will always happen like that,” Sam tried to argue. 

Dean sighed. “Did you know Mom was a hunter too?” 

“What?!”

“Yeah. She was. She tried to get out but the demon that killed her was one that she had a run in with before. He came looking for her. Her family were hunters way back. Dad’s family were part of a secret society that researched monsters and demons and angels and crap. Even if we had never picked up hunting everything would be after us just to get one over on our families. There’s no getting out. For either of us. I’m sorry. I wish it were different. I wish we could both just walk away, but we can’t.” 

Sam slumped down onto his bed and threw his arm over his eyes. He was surprised that Dean wanted out. He had always been so gung-ho about it, but he supposed that eventually it wore on everyone. Unfortunately, Dean made sense. They would never stop looking for them. But, “What’s this about vessels of the apocalypse?”

“Some destiny bullshit. I’m supposed to break the first seal and you’re supposed to break the last to release Lucifer from his cage then we’re supposed to be his and Michael’s vessels so they can duke it out and destroy the world. It’s not gonna happen. It didn’t even happen completely last time. We got duped into letting Lucifer out, but as soon as we realized what was up we stopped playing ball.” 

“Ok. That’s enough. I can’t handle anymore information right now,” Sam groaned. 

“Oh really? You sure about that Sam? I mean you did go to all the trouble to spy on me after all. I thought you wanted the whole bucket of shit dumped on you,” Dean said sarcastically, finally getting to the point of his whole information deluge. 

“Dean,” Sam started despondently before Dean’s rant kept up. 

“I mean I didn’t even give you any of the grizzly details yet. I didn’t tell you about the forty years I spent in hell or the two hundred years you did. Or the year I spent in purgatory. Or all the times we’ve died and come back and been tortured and betrayed each other and forgiven each other. I mean if you want to know everything so bad you can’t even give me a little time to wrap my head around things.”

“Okay Dean! I get it!” Sam threw up his hands in frustration. “I’m sorry okay? I just…I’m used to being the ones with the answers and suddenly being in the dark…I don’t like it.”

“You think I don’t wish it was you in my place? That you were the one who actually had to deal with this crap? Hell Sammy. I’m not equipped for this. This requires thinking and planning. That’s your forte not mine. I’ll be lucky not to send the whole damn planet out in a fiery explosion.”

“Why did he send you back then? Why not me?” Sam asked curiously. 

Dean sank defeated in his chair. “I don’t know Sammy. I’ve been thinking back on that day as much as I can and I don’t think he meant to send me. I think it was intended for you.” Sam gave him the look that Dean immediately recognized as his ‘elaborate please’ look. “It was…pretty nasty. We were all pretty close to biting it…for good this time. He sort of threw a ball of grace, but as he did he took a pretty nasty hit and was thrown across the room and the graceball just flew towards me. I think it was supposed to go to you before he got hit.”

“Ok so why don’t you just let me help you then. Not tonight, but soon, tell me everything and I can help you with the planning and thinking,” Sam suggested. 

Dean snorted derisively. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’d be wetting yourself if you knew half the shit we dealt with in the future.”

“It’s not like I’m some weak little kid anymore, Dean,” Sam said offended. 

“I didn’t say you were. Hell, when I was this age I would have done the same thing. I mean I spent forty years being ripped apart in hell by the top torture demon. You spent almost two centuries as Lucifer’s personal bunk buddy in the worst part of hell. We had a working business relationship with the king of hell and the leader of heaven. We had so many supernatural beings yanking so many chains we barely had any idea which way was up anymore. I became a damn demon for a while for crying out loud. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

By the time he finished Sam was white as a sheet. He would never admit it, but Dean had a point. Hell, Sam still considered low level demons as above his pay grade, and Dean hinted that there was more than that even? Sam didn’t think he wanted to know. “Ok. Fine. But can you tell me some more about the angels at least?” Sam had always been enamored with the idea of angels.


	6. Chapter 6

“Hold that thought for a sec,” Dean said before he looked up. He had never gotten out of the habit of either looking up or down as he prayed. “Hey Gabriel. Wanna pop in a sec. Got a question that involves me not accidentally giving you away.” He made sure to add that last part so Gabriel would know that it would be in his best interests to stop by. 

Gabriel appeared leaning casually against the wall, with a lollipop sticking out of his mouth, one foot flat against the wall next to his other knee, and arms crossed loosely over his chest. “What’s up buttercup?” he drawled lazily. 

“Just wondering how safe it is to talk about angel crap. Not sure if they’re watching us yet or what keywords they may pick up on even if they’re not yada yada.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. At least the kid was thinking. “C’mere,” Gabriel motioned them over. Dean walked over immediately, fully trusting of the archangel, but Sam hesitated. Gabriel placed his hand firmly over Dean’s chest and branded his ribs. 

Dean sucked in a sharp breath and let it out with a quiet, “Son of a bitch.” He rubbed his chest for a moment before turning to Sam. “He’s just gonna put some wards on you to keep the angels from finding us.”

“And that would be a bad thing?” Sam asked confused. 

“That would be a very bad thing,” Gabriel said before Dean could. Sam tentatively stepped forward and received the same treatment, pretending not to notice Gabriel’s hand lingering a little longer on his chest than it had Dean’s. “To be on the safe side, I would put up some basic wards before talking about ‘angel crap’. Especially if you’re going to be talking about me. I’m guessing you know how to do that?” 

Dean nodded so Gabriel returned the nod, winked at Sam and then disappeared. Dean cut his hand and drew a handful of symbols on the wall. “What’s that?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Basic angel-proofing. That one’s to keep them from hearing us. That one’s to keep them from seeing us. That one’s to block any prayers, intentional or unintentional. That one’s a precaution in case one shows up we can blast him away.”

Sam blinked for a moment, doing his best to memorize the symbols. “That’s basic?” 

“Oh sure. Full angel-proofing would probably cover every wall in this room and then some.”

“So as long as these are up, Gabriel can’t come back either?” Sam asked. 

“Nah. I intentionally left a loophole. If he knows where we are, and I’d bet my last dollar that he put some sort of tracker of his own on us before he popped us off the grid, then he can travel here. He just won’t be able to do so invisibly or spy on us from afar.”

“Ok so tell me about the angels. Why would it be a bad idea for them to find us?” 

“Well first thing you need to know is that ninety-nine percent of angels are complete douchebags. Even the ones that aren’t complete douchebags are at least half douchebag, yes Gabriel included. Thing is, most of the angels want the apocalypse to happen and while they’re not technically working with the demons to bring it about, they are working towards the same purpose. They need us to start it and we have to make sure they don’t get their hands on us.”

“Couldn’t we just…not do it if they try to make us? I mean, you know what not to do now, so it won’t be hard to just avoid it,” Sam suggested. Something about hiding from angels and thinking of them as the bad guys just didn’t sit right with him. 

Dean rolled his eyes. “They aren’t just going to sit by for that Sammy. Hell, a good amount of the torture we went through in the future was at their hands. They tortured us and used people close to us to manipulate us and force our hands when we stopped playing by their rules after we realized what they were doing. They were just as bad as the demons.”

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to consider it. But he had to. He trusted Dean. Dean was probably the only person in the world that he did trust that much. “So when you said that Gabriel was on the run from heaven…” Sam let the question hang. 

“That’s his story to tell. Not mine,” Dean told him. 

“Ok fine, but there’s one thing I still don’t understand,” Sam said. “You said he bailed on us and disappeared for four years, and from what I could tell we dealt with a lot of crap in that time. How can you still trust him so much?”

“Because he didn’t just bail on us. I didn’t tell him where he really was during that time.” Sam looked at him curiously. “He was dead,” Dean said bluntly. “We were captured and he waltzed in, knowing full well that he was going to die. That his own brother was going to kill him, and he did it anyway to give us time to escape. So yeah. When he was resurrected, he had earned my respect and a modicum of trust. It still took a little while before I trusted him completely though.”

The next morning, they took a cue from Gabriel and moved on before the strange happenings in this town drew too much attention. Dean made sure to clean the sigils from the walls before they left though. Sam had found another case. A highway that was haunted one night a year and it was coming up next week. “I think I remember that one. There was a car accident and some chick hit a guy that hunts her now on the anniversary or something,” Dean said trying to remember the details as best he could. 

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. I found this wreck that happened on the same night. So we head out and burn their bones and stuff yeah?” Sam was hoping this wasn’t another of those where Dean wanted to leave it alone. 

“We burn his bones. She doesn’t even know she’s dead. We can get her to accept it and she’ll move on,” Dean told him. 

Sam just nodded with a small smile. He could live with that. He would much rather help a spirit move on than destroy it, and if she really didn’t even know she was dead…well she must be innocent to some degree at least. 

Luckily Dean was able to remember where the bones were buried, though things did get a little dicey as they always do when they are going for the bones. The ghosts don’t usually like that very much. Sam had been a little uncomfortable with the idea of taking Molly to see her husband, but Dean told him it would be okay. He let Sam handle most of the trying to convince her to move on. Sam was so much better at that touchy feely crap than he was, and Sam was just glad he was still able to be useful, despite not having the information. 

Sam and Dean had a bit of an argument about Dean not filling him in more on the cases, but Dean pointed out that he was just trying to remember as they went along. It had been fifteen years ago for him after all. He couldn’t be expected to remember all the details of every case they’d ever taken. Sam realized that Dean was right and felt kinda bad about getting pissy with him. 

The next case Sam found though, Dean remembered well and had no intention of giving his brother many of the details. “First of all, there are two werewolves. Not just one. And yes I know who they are. We’ll just go in, take them out, and leave,” Dean said in a tone that left no room for argument. He was also going to be giving Sam the guy. He would take care of whatever her name was. He wasn’t going to take any chances of Sam going through all that crap again and actually falling for her again. 

The haunted Hollywood set was different. They managed to get in on the crew, and Dean had the case handled in under a day, but he wanted to stick around for a while and enjoy it. He’d had fun on the crew last time. Sam wasn’t quite as enthusiastic, but he just rolled his eyes and indulged his brother for a little while, but only as long as they had stayed last time, he compromised. 

When Dean got the call from Deacon, he considered it for a moment. “Ok we need to do some research on this one,” Dean told Sam. 

“Yeah. I already did soon as you said the name of the prison. I think I know who we’re dealing with,” Sam told him. 

“You’re wrong,” Dean interrupted. “It’s a nurse. I can’t remember her name or where she was buried. Thankfully we won’t need to go undercover in the prison again, but we still need to find that information.”

“I would think you’d be jumping at the chance,” Sam said curiously. 

“It wasn’t really all that fun. I got beat up more than once, nearly died when we hit the wrong spirit and she came after me, and the FBI tried to extradite us and we had to go even more underground afterwards. Let’s just avoid all that if possible,” Dean told him. 

Sam just shrugged. He could see why Dean wouldn’t want to do that again, so he started looking up nurses at the prison and they quickly narrowed down the right one, salted and burned her bones and were in and out quickly. 

Their next case was one where they both desperately wished Dean could remember the details. Dean just could not remember for the life of him where they eventually found the damn djinn. All he really remembered was his dream and that they killed it, so they split up to find it and were going to call the other person in if they did. Dean was more than a little jumpy about it, so they set up to check in with each other every thirty minutes. 

Just like last time though, the djinn caught Dean. He woke up in bed next to a beer model and rolled his eyes. At least he got the same dream. He knew perfectly well how to get out of it, but had no intention of leaving before he gave his mother a hug and told her that he loved her. He didn’t want to raise any suspicions though so he just assured the woman that he had a bad dream and went back to sleep. He would go see his mother in the morning. He knew that time worked differently here and he wouldn’t be gone very long. Last time he had lived weeks in a day. 

When Dean missed his check in and then wasn’t answering his phone, Sam panicked. He checked the last place he knew for sure that Dean had been looking, but there was nothing there so he did the smart thing. The only thing he could think to do to cut down on the time. He prayed for Gabriel. The archangel hadn’t been around at all since the day he warded them, but Dean didn’t seem surprised. He came when he was called though. “Sup Samsquatch?” he asked curiously. 

“We were hunting a djinn and Dean is gone and I have no idea where he is,” Sam said in a rush, just hoping the archangel would help him. 

“You really think your brother doesn’t know how to handle a djinn?” Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“No, I know he does. It’s just…” Sam trailed off feeling more than a little silly, but not able to make himself relax. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes and said. “I’ll take care of it,” before he disappeared. 

Sam couldn’t help but feel relieved. He would be totally comfortable until he had his brother back, but having an archangel on the case definitely helped. 

Gabriel knew that just snatching someone out of a djinn dream could have long term mental effects so he snapped himself into Dean’s head. He appeared sitting in the passenger seat of a car as Dean was driving down the road. “You’re panicking your brother,” Gabriel told him. 

“Yeah. I know. Sorry,” Dean said rather sheepishly. 

“Do you know how to get out of here?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“Of course. But my mother is alive here. I’m not leaving until I can give her a hug and tell her I love her. Then I’ll go.”

“Fair enough,” Gabriel said as he raised his hand to snap. 

Dean spoke again before he could though. “If you could find my knife and put it in my belt before I do though that would be very helpful,” he said. He knew better than to ask Gabriel to put himself into the hunt and actually do any of the dirty work, but maybe retrieving a knife wouldn’t be too much trouble. Gabriel just rolled his eyes again and completed his snap. 

Once Dean’s mission was complete, he took one of his mother’s kitchen knives while she was out of the room and stabbed himself. He jolted awake and smirked when he found his knife in his belt, and it widened when he saw his brother standing in front of him looking a little disoriented. It wasn’t long before the djinn came back and was easily dispatched.


	7. Chapter 7

Dean definitely remembered their next case. It was one that was burned into his memory in its entirety. He had given Sam a heads up on the basics and they had driven in the complete opposite direction of where Sam was abducted, but he doubted it would be that easy to avoid, and now that it was coming up, he went into a lot more detail. “Just do what you can to stay alive as long as you don’t kill anyone. Even if you’re fighting someone, don’t kill them. There is a curse on the town. If you kill within the town, then it can corrupt you. Don’t turn your back on anyone. Even for a moment. I’ll be there as soon as I can, but the town will be surrounded by demons so I don’t know how long it will take me. When you see me, don’t walk to me. Run. And I’ll be ready to shoot if someone heads for your back.” 

Dean had no intention of selling his soul for his brother again. Not knowing what would come of it, and he wasn’t going to count on Gabriel’s help. Not for this. Not for something that would broadcast his interference so completely. If Sam died, there was a good chance he would stay dead, but if it came to that he would rather his brother be happy in heaven than have all the apocalypse crap bearing down on them and risk Sammy jumping in the cage again. It wasn’t worth it. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do everything humanly possible to make sure it didn’t come to that. 

“You’ve said all this already, Dean,” Sam said tiredly. 

“Well you’re just gonna have to deal with the repeats then. I have no intention of seeing you die again Sammy.”

Sam just sighed. He couldn’t really blame Dean. If he was in his brother’s position right now, he would be a bundle of nerves too. It didn’t make it any less annoying though. No. That was a lie. I did make it less annoying. If it hadn’t been for that he would have strangled his brother after the fifth time he went through it. But it was still annoying. So much so that Sam was almost glad when it finally happened. Almost. 

Dean was fighting through the demons to get to Sam and he found himself wishing he had brought Bobby anyway. At this rate it was going to take him just as long as it had last time to get to Sam. And sure enough, he was right. He made it into town just as Sam dropped Jake Talley. Sam looked up and saw Dean, and true to his promise, ran over to him quickly, looking over his shoulder the whole time. When Jake got up to charge after him, Dean raised his pistol and said, “Don’t.” He wasn’t in danger of being corrupted by killing here since he didn’t have any demon blood in him, but so far Jake wasn’t corrupted either, making him an innocent. 

“I have to,” Jake said pleadingly, not that he thought it would make a difference. 

“No. You don’t. You don’t have to jump through some damn demon’s hoops. We’re leaving. Come after us, you die. I’d suggest you make yourself scarce too,” Dean told him. He had no intention of helping the guy out of here and he knew that the chances of him getting away from the demons was slim, but he wasn’t going to let the guy near Sam. 

Their next priority was to stop the hell gate from opening. He had already called Ash and had him empty the roadhouse and lay low, but as long as Azazel had his hands on the colt, the hell gate was a danger. They knew that Azazel would con someone into opening it. Probably Jake. They’d probably capture him and force him to do it, but they had a chance of talking him down since he hadn’t increased his powers by killing anyone. 

Still, Sam stayed hidden while Dean tried to talk him down. They both knew that Sam would be better for the job, but Dean still wasn’t letting Jake anywhere near him. Sam had instructions to shoot without hesitation if Jake tried any mind crap or went near the door to the hell gate. They camped there for a day and a half before Jake showed up. Jake stopped short when he saw Dean waiting for him. “Please. He’ll kill my family if I don’t do this,” Jake said desperately. 

Dean didn’t lower his gun, but recognized that Jake didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to be here. “I’ll tell you what. We make some phone calls and get some hunters to go protect your family and you hand over the colt and we all walk out of here alive. How’s that sound?” Dean offered. Jake gave a hesitant nod so Dean asked. “Ok. Where’s your family?”

“Carrboro North Carolina.” 

Dean pulled his phone and called Bobby. “Hey we got anybody near Carrboro, North Carolina…they able to pick up some people in danger…yeah I’ll wait,” Dean said over the phone before turning to Jake. “We got someone about an hour away. Seeing if they can make a detour.”

“You guys have a whole organization?” Jake asked amazed. 

“Sort of. Not exactly organized. Most hunters do their own thing and keep to themselves, but they tend to check in from time to time so if something happens we know who’s nearby at least,” Dean explained with a shrug before turning his attention back to the phone. “Yeah? Great,” he turned back to Jake. “Address?” He gave Bobby the address as Jake told it to him and hung up. 

Dean still had his gun trained on Jake who said, “So what now?”

“Now, you hand over the colt and we wait here for confirmation that your family is safe. Not gonna let old yellow-eyes know you didn’t do it until we’re sure they’re out of his hands, but I’m gonna need a gesture of good faith,” Dean said holding out his hand. 

Jake gladly handed over the gun and Dean motioned for Sam to come out of hiding. Dean stayed between Sam and Jake, but they all settled in for a wait, leaning against the headstones as Dean told the young soldier more about hunting and answered all of his hundred or so questions. He had long since given up on keeping people out of the business, but he would make sure they knew what they were getting themselves into before they got too deep. 

Jake jumped when Dean’s phone rang. “Yeah…got it…sure thing…thanks Bobby.” He hung up and noticed Jake’s hopeful look and said, “They got them. They’re safe. They were being watched by two demons, but the hunters took out the demons and they’re moving your family to a safe house where you can meet up with them and decide where to go next.”

Jake let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t suppose you’d…um…help me get out of here?” he asked hopefully. 

It made Dean nervous for sure, but he tossed Sam the keys. “You’re driving Sammy,” he ordered. Dean was going to sit in back with Jake and watch him like a hawk. “We’ll get you to the nearest bus station and you can head out from there. I’ll give you the address of the safe house when we get there. Don’t want it falling into the demon’s hands if we get into trouble along the way.” 

Once they made it to the bus station without incident, Dean gave Jake one more piece of advice. “Don’t become a hunter unless you’re prepared to cut ties with your family. Nothing will think twice about using them to get to you. If you’re gonna go that road, set them up with new identities and walk away.”

“How would I do that?” Jake asked curiously. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he joined the military because he wanted to protect people. His military career was over either way after he was listed as AWOL, but this way he could still help people. It was an option at least. 

“If you decide to go that route the hunter at the safe house can hook you up,” Sam told him.

“Thanks guys. Really. I mean, I know I screwed up, but you saved my family. You saved me. No matter what I end up doing from here I’m grateful and if you ever need anything, just let me know.” He shook their hands enthusiastically and bought his bus ticket. Sam and Dean stuck around, out of sight, until his bus actually left town before they let themselves breathe easily. 

Dean had gotten a box and warded it specifically for the colt. It wasn’t just warded against demons either. It was warded against angels, witches, demons, any magic at all, and keyed to where only he or Sam could open it or even touch it. That was a useful little trick they had picked up from the men of letters in the future. He had no intention of ever letting that gun fall into anyone else’s hands. In fact, it would only even be used by them in the direst of emergencies. They decided to head back to Bobby’s for some down time after all that. From here on in things were going to be drastically changed from what Dean remembered.


	8. Chapter 8

They made it back to Bobby’s only to find Ellen, Jo, and Ash sitting there waiting for them too. The roadhouse had been burnt to the ground but thanks to Dean’s warning it was empty at the time and they were understandably curious about how Dean had known. As far as Dean was concerned this was pretty much his extended family, so he shared the basics of the time travel with them, leaving out Gabriel’s involvement and identity, knowing that the archangel wouldn’t like anyone else knowing about him. They thankfully cared enough not to press him for details that he wouldn’t give, and were grateful that he had saved their lives. Dean pointed out that technically he had only saved Ash and a few other hunters that had happened to be there, Ellen and Jo having been out at the time, but that didn’t change anything as far as they were concerned. 

Dean’s only regret was the fact that they didn’t get to kill the demon this time and as far as he knew, his father’s soul was still in hell. He had long since lost any trace of respect for the man though, so while it would have been nice to release him, he wasn’t going to lose much sleep over it. He didn’t dare smuggle himself in and release him the way Sam had done Bobby during the trials. He wasn’t stepping one foot in hell as long as they could possibly use him to break the first seal. 

Sam was the one who asked the big question. “So what happens next?” 

“I honestly don’t know,” Dean said honestly. “This whole thing was the catalyst of everything that happened next. Most of the next year we spent split between mopping up the demons that came from the hell gate and trying to get me out of my demon deal. It’s a whole new ballgame from here on in.” 

“But a game without a few hundred extra demons and no looming apocalypse. I can live with that,” Ellen said. 

“Hear hear,” they heard a voice say from the other side of the room. They all spun to look at the owner of said voice, pulling guns in the process. Dean instinctively jumped in front of Gabriel, who just rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers making the guns disappear. “Moron,” he said almost fondly and Dean just gave him a sheepish shrug. The hunter had known that while the guns couldn’t hurt Gabriel, they could hurt him. It had just been an automatic reaction when someone he cared about was threatened. 

The others, while more than nervous with the fact that they apparently had something supernatural in their vicinity, and something very powerful at that, made no more moves to attack since Dean was apparently protecting it. They would get more information. “What are you doing here?” Dean asked curiously. 

“To congratulate you for averting the apocalypse. At least for now. I didn’t think you could do it, but you proved me wrong. They won’t give up though you know,” Gabriel told him. He wanted to make sure they had what it took to at least avoid the first steps before he risked getting any more attached. 

“I know,” Dean admitted. “But we know what not to do. They won’t succeed even if it means our deaths.” Gabriel gave a quick nod of respect to the hunter, who had another bone to pick. “I’m guessing since you’re here it means we can talk freely,” he said pointedly, letting Gabriel know that he wasn’t going to talk in riddles. If he was going to be here, then he wouldn’t stay a secret. 

“Might as well,” Gabriel said tiredly. Gabriel had assumed when he had told these people about the time travel that they were his most trusted allies, and given the way the hunter gathered people, probably considered family, which meant that if things worked out like he hoped they would be his family too. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with it though. 

“Ok guys. This is the archangel Gabriel. Gabriel this is Bobby, Ellen, Jo, and Ash.” He just dropped the bombshell and was met with skeptical looks from all of them. 

“Oh for the love of…” Gabriel muttered and closed his eyes projecting the shadow of his six huge wings on the wall behind him as every piece of glass in the house shattered and he opened his eyes again to show glowing blue orbs. Once he was finished with his little demonstration he snapped his fingers, repairing the house. “Glass doesn’t react very well to the release of grace,” he explained. 

“An archangel,” Jo said in awe. “Angels are real.”

“Yep, but the rest of them are massive dicks so don’t go looking for any. And Gabriel is in hiding so keep him a secret,” Dean told them. 

“Why?” Bobby asked suspiciously. 

“The angels want the apocalypse as much as the demons do. Lucifer is my brother too though and he’s not hurting anyone all locked up in his cage. They just want to let him out so they have an excuse to kill him. I left because I was sick of my family fighting. Not to mention I’m rather fond of this world and humans and like it the way it is,” Gabriel said and that’s all the detail this whole group was going to get about his troubles in heaven. He didn’t really like telling them that much, but otherwise they would have no reason to keep him a secret and stay away from other angels. 

“You should probably let him ward you to keep them from finding you too,” Sam suggested looking questioningly at Gabriel. He remembered what Dean had said about the angels using people close to them against them. 

“Good thinking Samsquatch. I knew I liked you for a reason,” Gabriel said with a smirk. “Ok kiddies. Line up.”

“Hold up here a sec. What kind of warding are we talking about?” Bobby asked suspiciously. 

“He puts a bunch of sigils on your ribs so you can’t be found by supernatural means,” Dean explained. 

“Then how did yellow-eyes find Sam?” Ash asked pointing out the flaw in the plan. Judging by the look on Dean’s face he hadn’t considered that either. 

“Unfortunately ‘yellow-eyes’ as you call him, put a sort of tracker in Sam as a baby. I can’t block that,” he said apologetically. Sam was both annoyed at the fact that he couldn’t be hidden from the demon and immensely grateful that Gabriel didn’t mention the demon blood. Sam was still reeling from that revelation himself though he would bet that Dean knew too. 

“So this will keep anything from finding us at all?” Ellen asked. 

“Not completely. Just by supernatural means. They can still look like humans…paper trails, tracking phones or credit cards or however else you humans have of locating each other, but they won’t be able to sense you at all, even when they’re right on top of you,” Gabriel told them. 

“Ok. Sign me up,” Ash said hoping up to be first in line only to find himself doubled over in pain. “Son of a sea cook, that hurts!” 

“It’ll pass in a sec,” Gabriel told him. “Ok who’s next?” 

Bobby bravely stepped up. A little momentary pain for being invisible to crap that wants to kill you was fine in his book. Once it was done he rolled his eyes at Ash. “Oh suck it up ya idgit. It’s not that bad.”

Ellen and Jo took their turns too and Gabriel felt a lot better with everyone who knew about his identity warded and warned.


	9. Chapter 9

“You gonna hang for a while?” Dean asked casually. 

“Sure. Why not? Let’s make this a party,” Gabriel said as he snapped his fingers and Bobby’s living room was converted into a discotech, complete with the flashing lights, disco ball, and horrible music. 

“Oh come on Gabe. If we gotta keep the décor at least give us some decent music,” Dean griped. 

“Is my future with you mooks going to be a constant string of compromises?” Gabriel whined. 

“Pretty much,” Dean joked despite both of them knowing that Gabriel never gave an inch unless he wanted to. Gabriel just never wanted people to think that he was actually reasonable so he made it seem like such an onerous thing. Needless to say, he changed to music to Dean’s favored classic rock, but the softer stuff that Sam liked. The disco ball stayed though. 

Ash immediately started dancing, pulling a laughing Jo along with him. Ellen seemed like she didn’t know what to do, and Bobby was gearing up for an explosion. Dean headed it off though. “Don’t worry Bobby. He’ll put it back. It’s easier to just go along with it.”

“Really Dean? This is ridiculous,” Sam groaned. 

“One thing you’ll learn about Gabriel. He’s like a hurricane. You can steer a bit, but you can’t stop him,” Dean said with a laugh. 

About that time, Gabriel came over and grabbed Sam. “Come on Sam-a-lam. Dance with me.” Sam gave Dean a pained look as he helplessly let the archangel drag him away. Dean just gave a cheeky wave as he chuckled. 

“If this house isn’t in the exact same condition that it was…” Bobby warned gruffly. 

“It will be. Minus some dirt and grime, I’m sure,” Dean said as he grabbed three beers from the fridge and handed two of them to Bobby and Ellen. 

“So what’s with you and the pixie?” Bobby asked. 

“What do you mean?” Dean looked at his father figure confused. 

Ellen decided to try and help. “He means that you seem relaxed. Happy even. It’s not like you. And the way you keep watching him…”

Dean’s jaw dropped. “Wha..no! oh god. No. Uh-uh. Not a chance,” he rushed to assure them and ended up doing the exact opposite and getting twin knowing looks. “No. We’re not…he’s my brother in law. Or will be. We were close in the future. That’s all. I want to see him and Sam as happy as they were then. And he’s a lot of fun to have around once you get used to the…well…this.”

Over the course of the evening, even the old fogeys loosened up and had some fun and Dean got some dancing time in with both Ellen and Jo. Gabriel wouldn’t let go of Sam for a moment though, and Sam didn’t seem to be complaining. 

It was getting pretty late and Dean was about to ask Gabriel to wrap it up before he looked over and saw him with his head on Sam’s shoulder as they danced a slow song. Sam was beet red, but smiling brightly. Dean decided to wait for a few more songs. He would bet that the rest of the songs tonight would be slow ones. Sam looked over and caught his eye and his blush got even brighter, but Dean just raised his beer in salute with his own grin. Everything was going to be just fine.


End file.
